A 2+2 road is a specific type of dual-carriageway that exists primarily in Ireland, Sweden, Estonia and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, consisting of two lanes in each direction separated by a steel

cable barrier A cable barrier, sometimes referred to as guard cable or wire rope safety barrier (WRSB), is a type of roadside or median safety traffic barrier/guard rail. It consists of steel wire ropes mounted on weak posts. As is the case with any roadside ...

. These roads do not have

hard shoulder A shoulder (American English), hard shoulder (British English) or breakdown lane (Australian English) is an emergency stopping lane by the verge on the outer side of a road or motorway. Many wider freeways, or expressways elsewhere have should ...

s and therefore cannot be designated as motorways in the future. However, they may be designated as

limited-access roads A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, partial controlled-access highway, and expressway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a contro ...

, as such roads do not require the physical standard of motorways to be designated as expressways. The Irish variant has lanes where there are a number of Swedish variants some with lanes. Junctions are generally at-grade

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

s and minor roads cross under or over the mainline without connecting. They are also known as "type 2 dual-carriageways" by the Irish

National Roads Authority The National Roads Authority (NRA) () is a state body in Ireland, responsible for the national road network. The NRA was established as part of the Roads Act 1993 and commenced operations on 23 December 1993 in accordance with S.I. 407 of 1993 ...

. These roads look similar to expressways, except that expressways often have interchanges, large medians or concrete barriers between traffic. 2+2 roads are commonly found in the outskirts of Jamaica.

History

First Irish 2+2

In Ireland first purpose-built road of this type opened in December 2007 as a new greenfield section of the N4

national primary route A national primary road () is a road classification in Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are 2649 km of national primary roads. This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by ...

which joins

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

References

{{Road types Road surface markings

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Roads in Sweden Types of roads

History

First Irish 2+2

See also

References